Thread: whats a good reasonable compound drill slide with vice??

Originally Posted by wozzzzza

looking for a compound drill slide with vice around 100mm that i can use to drill things in straight line, accurate holes and allows easy movement of the work piece with reasonable accuracy.
what of these is decent or something else? not looking for hugely expensive stuff.

ITM 100mm Drill Press Cross Vice TM130-100 | Total Tools
Carbatec 4" Cross Slide Vice | Carbatec
TradeTools

I’ve had a similar one, think I still have it, but too be honest it was a bad buy, found it too be really slack in the tolerance’s,
I know you get what you pay for, but it was better suited at being a door stop.

I would keep looking, even try second hand machinery stuff.

Cheers Matt.

thought i would go one of these rather than the $40 vevor or ebay ones that look plastic thinking metal would be better but maybe i have to go another step up?? dont need 0.01" accuracy, just something that will hold a workpiece solidly and not vibrate around when being drilled.

I have had one very similar (probably the same) that I bought from H&F

its very handy in a lot of applications, but as mentioned you wouldnt want to rely on it for precision work

mine cost $100 and was worth it for the cost

you get what you pay for I guess

Hodgo

I've had 2 of those generic 100mm compound vices. The first one was from Timbecon which didn't like being dropped onto my shed floor as it broke a casting. This was replaced by an almost identical one from Carbatech which I had long enough (~5 years) to become much sloppier than when it was new.

Then my bro gave me a 150 mm compound vice that he bought but found it reduced his work envelope under his (smaller) DP so much he often couldn't use it, I think he got it from Hare and Forbes. My DP being much taller meant this vice fit better but it still substantially reduce the work envelop. In terms of general wear the 150mm one has been OK in that it hasn't become anywhere near as sloppy but still not as good as I like.

When I want to drill things in a long straight line I use my metal milling machine which has a long compound table on it. The precision in placement of this is waaaaaay better than those compound vices.
You can buy sliding compound tables like this;
Just a moment...
Then fitting a regular vice to it, although you might find it one wont be very accurate so you might have to go up in price.
And unless you have a really large drill press you will find the restriction in work envelope significant to the point where they become unusable.
Those compound tables are also quite heavy and you need to make sure your DP table can cope with the weight.

A good DP table and fence might be just as accurate for your needs as those budget end compound vices.

I use my compound vices mainly for drilling metal so it regularly gets covered in oily swarf. When I want to drill wood I often just clamp a wooden platform into the vice jaws sos I have a clean working surface to work with. Again you need to have enough of a work envelope to work with under the chuck to do this.

Here is the wooden platform in the 100mm Carbatech vice.
DPtable2.jpg

Here is the 150 mm with home made table in it for drilling metal
It also shows how big that vice is.
DPtable1.jpg